aaronm
2923
Customary use...
Custom="the name on the knife is the maker (ground, fitted, polished, etc..." with other participants usually named (engraver, smith, HT) or at least acknowledged (I buy my sheaths, etc). Usually this has everything made unique for that knife(excluding screws and the like), rather than telling a CNC to mill 100 scales, but that is less of a hard line. Perhaps an apprentice in the shop, but not often and they are often listed.
Production=Anything else, from Chris Reeve, who runs a small company with perhaps a dozen makers to Benchmade, Spyderco and Kershaw with factories on more than one continent.
At the very top of production are brands like Chris Reeve and Randall, they are production pieces but made entirely by hand and held to very high standards, and some so-called semi-customs, where a talented maker has pieces waterjet or laser cut and only does the final finish work inhouse. Not unlike the old ebauche system.
As an unusual side note, in many cases people value the "sole ownership" (1 guy doing everything from a pile of raw steel and other stuff) pieces a bit higher than shared work, but at the very highest end, shared pieces, where a specialist in each field does only the work he does best, are quite valuable.
I could go on....
A
Post Humpday Headscratcher - We Are Not Alone
My first response...
This should I hope make us feel more comfortable in our little world of horology
another perspective
A Tightrope Walk
Your thoughts are not out of line, especially since your point is
Why on earth would anyone call a knife: ZT0300 TAD USN?
I like Dustin Atkins already …
Interesting...
This could be interesting.